For the fifth round we were drawn against Australia: the guys from down under have a reputation of being fun but also quite capable generals. We had the pleasure of facing them in Athens during the 2016 ETC, and they gave us a good spanking on the last round of the tournament sending us down to the bottom half of the results table.

This year the Australian team didn’t only bring the usual suspects, but they enlisted the help of former German team captain@Frederick (of T9A fame). So the chances of winning the round were pretty slim, but we had to try and make it work.

One list that caused a lot of issues was the dreaded Peasant Army, led by none other than Mr Akhter Khan. In the end I got to face him, and I was very glad to do so as our vampire count player couldn’t stop rambling last year about how awesome their game was and how fun a player Akhter is. (this would also prove to be true in our game, facing Mr Foodmonster was a pleasure)

Having played this matchup before against Yannick from team Germany, I knew that the key to even have a chance was to rush forward with the treefathers, dodge every single projective the KoE threw their way and get into combat. The rest of the list is practically free points for the peasants if I ever engage, so the trees would have to do the heavy lifting.

Akhter picked a corner and deployed his army in a very compact manner, making sure to not leave any space for a totemic summon to threaten his trebuchets. I responded by putting the trees centrally and far enough to rush the KoE lines, with dancers and kestrels in support. The juicy targets for Trebuchets stayed hidden behind the hill and building. My opponent won the first turn roll and started the game.

With no considerable movement, we went straight into magic: The Unerring Strike was dispelled, then the Fate’s Judgment went through irresistibly on the closest kestrels. The spell was lost, and a single kestrel fell to the spell’s damage. The massed shooting managed to deal a further 2 wounds on the kestrels despite needing 7’s to hit. The Trebuchets failed to hit the Treefathers.

The wounded kestrels moved back to safety, right behind the building. They’d stay there all game long. The archers also spent a good amount of time hiding behind that building, wary of any stray trebuchet rocks. In the middle, the Treefathers rushed forward, with the wardancers close behind and inside the forest’s protection. The Forest Guard reformed 2-deep and moved up to give my Druidline of sight to the warmachines.

In the magic phase the Insect swarm went through, dealing 3 wounds to one of the Trebuchets.

The Peasant line angled to face my treefathers, the far left unit wheeling to threaten with countercharges. Magic saw a bubble scrying go off, but the Unerring strike was dispelled yet again. Shooting was focused on the Treefathers now, and a couple of wounds went through on one tree.

Yet again, things were straightforward: the trees moved up aggressively, just making sure that the peasants wouldn’t be able to charge out of LoS of either of them. Kestrels moved up to the flank of the peasant line, and the dryads and bladedancers stayed in support of the trees.

In combat I managed to heal one of the wounds on the Treefather. My opponent stopped the totemic summon, and the insect swarm failed to cast. Shooting with the tree roots dropped a couple of peasants.

The peasant levy declined the charge, and instead decided to try and kill the treefather from afar. In the magic phase I stopped the Unerring Strike once more, and the scrying bubble went off. The shooting was ineffective, thankfully: only a couple of wounds were suffered, in a combination of bad rolls for Akhter and spectacular saves for the forest giants.

Our fourth opponent at ETC was to be Ukraine: some of my teammates had already met and played them at the Herford warm-up, so we knew we were up for good and fun games. I got to play Andrii, with his very Dwarf-y Dwarven Holds army:

So a list very different from what I’d faced before: two big sturdy blocks, good redirectors, a very potent counter to my Treefathers in the form of the S10 King, a mobile scorer and a healthy dose of accurateartillery.

We got to play Secure Target and deployment was Flank Attack. I won the roll for sides and opted to pick the big centre and the side with decent terrain to hide my troops behind. The two objectives went on the two flanks.

For spells, my Druid got the Beast Awakens, Pounding Drumbeat, Break the Spirit and Totemic Summon while the Matriarch had to settle for Spirits of the Wood and Entwined Roots.
My opponent chose to deploy in a careful manner, essentially castling around the left corner and near one of the objectives. He then gave me the first turn.

The dwarven Organ Gun was deployed a tad too forward, giving my kestrels a very juicy second turn charge target. Both units of kestrels moved inside the protection of the sylvan forest, and they were looking at a 7+ and 8+ charge to silence the warmachine on the following turn. The Forest Guard to the right slowly began moving towards the right hand objective.

The Treefathers moved up cautiously, with the fragile elves staying far behind and protected from all kinds of cover.

Magic and Shooting were of no consequence this turn, although my opponent had to use his Rune of Denial to stop the Totemic Summon from getting cast.

The Kingsguard performed a 90 degree turn to threaten the kestrels should they charge the Organ Gun, while the Greybeards moved up aggressively towards the flyers. The steam copters relocated and the entire dwarven shooting was focused on the sylvan fast support:

The Organ Gun failed to hit (needing 8’s), the Steam Copters put a wound on the right unit and it was the catapult that managed to kill another bird with a lucky shot.

Both Kestrels charged into the Organ Gun, and the Treefather right behind charged into the Steam Copter, forcing it to flee. Unfortunately, all units failed to make it in! That really put a damper on my plans for a quick win, as now both units stumbled out of cover and right in front of the greybeards!

In the magic phase I tried my best to mitigate the situation: the totemic summon was dispelled, which allowed me to cast Treesinging on my forest and move it right under the kestrels once more! Then I unfortunately failed to cast Break the Spirit on the Greybeards.

The Greybeards flank charged into the right kestrel unit. The Kingsguard turned to face the sylvan force once more, while the miners popped up and, to my surprise, appeared behind my Bladedancers (I was expecting them to try and contest the right objective instead). The fleeingsteam bomber rallied, and the second one chaffed my Treefather next to the building.

Runic magic bestowed rerolls to hit on the Greybeards, the other runes getting stopped. Shooting was directed at the left Treefather, causing a wound. The grudge thrower missed the right Treefather, and the Miners killed 3 dancers with pistol shots. In combat, the Greybeards made short work of the kestrels and overran into the second unit. They took a couple of wounds from dangerous terrain, though!

The magic phase was brutally effective: some very good rolls saw me put Break the Spirit on the Greybeards, and Awaken the Beast on the flanking Bladedancers. Shooting dropped four miners.

The treefather made short work of the steam copter, and the big combat was an impressive show of force by the S5 Bladedancers: when everything was said and done, out of the 23 greybeards initially in the unit, only four remained! They retaliated by… [Read More]

Welcome to the first game of a 6 game Tournament (6 Games, what a sadistic TO!), the UK Grand Tournament, Heat 1.

The list I’m taking is:

Not too different from what I usually take but this time I’m taking a sorcerer, I’ve gone mono Wrath for long enough, it’s time to try out this Magic malarkey and see what it is all about. I’ve gone for Alchemy because of all the ranged spells as a ranged threat is what I’m often lacking.

So we go straight into Game 1 and I was drawn against Beast Herds which I normally dread these days as they are just so numerous it makes for a difficult game to play and even more so to write up. Thankfully my opponent had a slightly different list from the usual Chariot spam, Centaurs and chaff. His list:

Nice to see a Minotaur Lord instead of a Beast Lordchariot and if I’m honest the Minotaur Lord scares me more. I’m fairly certain the Minotaur Lord can beat my Daemon Prince in a one on one fight. Also the unit of Minotaurs poses an extreme threat against my army, if I can’t keep them in check they will run through my whole army. The rest of it doesn’t worry me too much.

After the game we did a quick Daemon Prince v Minotaur Lord and the Minotaur does edge it thanks to his Primal Fury but it was still close, I probably should have risked it just for the great opportunity for an epic fight! [Read More]

Toriyama, first minister, chief architect and sorcerer supreme to the mighty Emperor Katagura Mitsuke, hurried towards the great Mausoleum at the centre of the ancient sepulcher, navigating its maze-like twists and turns with practiced ease. Motes of dust glittered in the moonlight, kicked up by his feet as they trod pathways not walked for hundreds of years. Silently he mused to himself, reflecting on the irony that being such as himself, a creature whom until recently had, quite literally, all the time in the world, was in fact, in a hurry. At over 2000 years old, Toriyama had spent all his mortal days desperately trying to escape the ravages of time. In the end, he had succeeded; to a point. Neither living nor dead and having shed his organic skin, its machinations had no effect on him. He neither aged nor slept, did not eat, drink, breathe or care for the pleasures mortals enjoyed. He only served.

Precious minutes passed, but eventually, having navigated the labyrinth and found its way to its heart, he came upon a pair of mighty bronzed gates that led into a large, sealed, rectangular structure. With but a gesture, the portal before him opened to reveal yet another passageway, this time angled downwards in to the very bowels of the Earth itself. Pausing for mere seconds to utter the correct incantations and gather his composure, Toriyama crossed the threshold. No sooner had he done so, than the portal behind him ground shut with a resounding boom. With no windows or light shafts to the outside, the avenue was plunged into blackness.

Whilst Toriyama had lost his mortal eyes long ago, when his cursed flesh had been turned to stone, the cold orbs that now sat in their stead served him equally well. He could have used his mage sight he supposed, but old habits die hard. With a muttered cantrip, a pulsating nimbus of light burst from his hand, its radiance gently illuminating the passageway. Shadows danced in the soft glow, revealing deep set alcoves filled with the silent statues of armoured soldiers. Continuing his journey, further and further underground he moved, pausing only occasionally to examine clay seals, which adorned many of the gateways that sprung from the thoroughfare, like the roots of a mighty tree.

***

It was some time later as his journey neared its end, that the path ahead opened into a vast chamber, hundreds of meters long. Within the chamber, arrayed in ordered ranks stood thousands of warrior statues, similar to the ones populating the alcoves he passed during his descent. Silently Toriyama slipped between them, making is way towards the very rear of the chamber. On the far wall, raised on a platform high above the ground and accessible by a long flight of wide steps was his destination; a mighty archway built of the finest marble. The shafts of its pillars were adorned with mystic symbols, whilst the capitals, frieze and base bore intricate carvings of dragons and other creatures of myth. At its centre sat mirror of polished silver, gently reflecting the light still emanating from his hand.

Glancing at the faces of the stone soldiers he passed, he noted the differences in each and every one, for no two were the same. Pride and shame warred within his mind, for between him and his goal stood both his greatest achievement and the ultimate stain on his honour. Brushing aside the slight resurgence of a humanity he had long thought lost, Toriyama made his way to the steps. Upon reaching their summit, he removed a small gong from within the folds of his robe, before taking up a position in the middle of the platform, opposite the archway. With a strike of the gong, surprisingly loud in such a cavernous space, he began his ritual.

***

With his ritual complete, Toriyama abased himself before the now open doorway, daring to snatch a glance at the scene beyond as he did so. Beyond mouth of the archway now lay an ornate throne room, bustling with all manner of celestial beings. At its centre, seated on a throne of gold sat a figure in full battle armour, head bowed and a sheathed katana upon his lap. Slowly the head rose, revealing a handsome, if cruel, face of purest jade.

“Toriyama. Why do you disturb me so?” growled a gravel like voice, its displeasure plain.“Master!” From his prone position, Toriyama tried to bow even lower, as if he could merge himself with the stones beneath him. “I have found it. I have found HIM.”There was a pause. “Where?”. The figure was standing now and striding towards the portal, its cold dead eyes somehow managing to radiate malice. “Kala Volcanis Great one, in the Mountains of the Sky! The Dwarves, they…”“SILENCE!” Beautiful yet terrible to behold was the figure as it reached the gateway. The surface rippled like that of a lake as his master stepped through. “Kala Volcanis”. He paused again. “It is as the Kami foretold…” He paused. “Rise!”As Mitsuke’s hand swept upwards, Toriyama found himself unconsciously standing, his stony flesh no longer… [Read More]

The idea was for there to be a few of us on the hangout but technology and poor west country education let the side down somewhat. Nevertheless we had a discussion about some of the matchups at this weekends up coming tournament in Bath. We also talked about some of the differences between the Uk and Denmark.

Some people might find this interesting. Otherwise its white noise while you are painting.

Hopefully this is something that people would like to see more of. I hope to get more of the content tem involved next time with a bit more planning.

On round 3 we were paired up against Switzerland: with a very good showing last year, they’d come up with lists that were relatively out of the box, and quite dangerous. Looking at them, I had several medium to good matchups, but there were two lists that I definitely wanted to avoid: The Pyromancy/Bowline OnG and the MSU Dwarves of @polux.

In the end, I had to settle for a match against Filip and his Saurian ancients, in Secure target and Refused Flank.

So a pretty straightforward list: 3 stubborn roadblocks backed by druidism for healing, a decent amount of shooting in the form of the spearbacks/salamanders and a Pathmaster of Divination to keep my big targets honest.

The good news were that without any cowboys my units “only” had to deal with the three taurosaurs before getting to the soft part of the army.

We traded deployment drops for a while, then my opponent forced me to go first by dropping the rest of his army. I ended up with a weighed left flank, the two treefathers relatively central and a unit of Kestrels and the small BD looking over the rightmost objective. The Saurians were squaring off against the treefathers and the small elven contingent, with the three Taurosaurs covering the left flank.

Having played against this kind of list before, I knew that I had to pull the taurosaurs out of position; as long as they stay within 12” of the quatl charging them is a bad idea, and the same applies if they can support each other.So I decided to sacrifice one unit of kestrels for a chance to open up the saurian lines.

The kestrels moved up within charging range of the leftmost taurosaur, tempting the charge, while the BD with BSB moved into position for countercharge. In the middle, the treefathers moved up a bit to threaten the enemy advance: All I had to do to win was to delay the scorers long enough to the right while securing the objective on the top left.

Magic started with an insect swarm on the closest taurosaur, which bounced off without effect thanks to the engine’s ward save. The ring of fire was dispelled. The archers opened fire at the closest spearbacks, dealing 2 wounds at long range.

Filip proved to be too smart for my tricks: instead of charging my kestrels, he moved two taurosaurs in range for some blowpipe shots. The salamanders also moved up to shoot at them. In the middle, the spearbacks had a clear shot at the treefather, so moved up to take it. The rest of the army advanced cautiously, the cuatl getting in range for some spells.

Magic started with a miscast Fate’s Judgment on the right treefather: I let it through, my armour saving the wounds caused. The spell was lost in return, so definitely a good tradeoff! The Unerring Strike was then dispelled with dice.

Shooting was a bit more effective: the combined efforts of the blowpipes and the salamanders dropped two kestrels, effectively taking them out of the game. The right treefather shrugged off all of the spearbacks’ shots thanks to his armour and ward.

With the original trap avoided, I figured that I had to put some pressure on the saurians: the kestrel moved back, and I offered a long charge on the BSB’s bladedancer retinue to the taurosaurs. Both treefathers advanced to be able to shoot some roots at the wounded spearbacks. The Forest Guard shuffled a bit towards the objective marker, and would keep on doing that all game long.

Magic started yet again with a successful insect swarm, this time dealing a single wound to the closest taurosaur. The rest was dispelled by the quatl with ease. Shooting was focused on the spearbacks, and between the two treefathers’ shots and the 20 sylvan archers, I managed to kill the unit and get some points!

After some deliberation, my opponent decided not to take the long charge on the bladedancers. He shuffled the taurosaurs around, careful to keep all of them within the Engine bubble. The quatl and braimans stayed relatively put.

In the magic phase I had to let a bubble Scrying go off to try and dispel the Unerring strike: my adversary was kind enough to fail his casting attempt for the latter, though, so the magic phase ended… [Read More]

Hello listeners! It's been a while for us largely due to holidays. Summer is a slow gaming/podcast season in Copenhagen! Nevertheless, we are back with a short episode to keep you going unill next month when we will bring you a tournament report from Giant Fanatic 2017!

On this episode Rasmus and Henry have a chat about what they have been doing this month in the hobby, a bit of an overview of the recent news and talk a little bit about giant Fanatic which is happening next weekend (30th September).

Rasmus Ice effect:

A link to the paiting tutorial we discussed:

Sorry for the summer hiatus. We should be resuming regular broadcasts moving into winter

We are a group of people in Copenhagen mainly playing the new game The 9th Age.
The podcast will be mainly focussed around our gaming experience with 9th Age, rules, game, release reviews and some tournament reports.
'Ammertime Team